All ranting aside, this time I thought I'd take me a little time to talk about me.  I just got in from moving four contractor bags of debris from my basement tear-out that the bastard city neglected to take this morning (which is a whole other rant) back to my garage. And I realized something.  It was actually hard to do that.  Muscles were burning, back was hurting and hands were getting cramped from gripping garbage bag. 

  Interestingly enough I did it.  But it seems as though my physical capabilities just aren't what they were ten years ago, when I was 19.  How strange, what that getting older thing does to you.

  When I was 19, I was laying carpet with another guy on a jobsite.  I was skimming around the carpet on my knees without any pads, with no problem.  Sweating a little bit, but not too much and banging that knee kicker like it was nobody's business....   Over the course of last summer (I was actually 28 at the time) I laid in the carpet in our family room, and hallway.  It about damn near killed me!!  I had to break into my wife's leftover supply of Vicadin, just to set the rug!!!   My left knee (old accident injury) was hurting so damn bad, I could barely walk the next day.

  I ask - WTF?  Even at work - A long time ago, I could sling ceramic tile boxes like they were nothing - Carry two to three at a time (hell, when I would build a deck, I would carry two 80lb bags of concrete on each shoulder from the truck to where we were setting posts!) and now, when I have to re-stack a pallet of tile, I cringe - Because I know that I'll more than likely blow my back out again (which happened for the first time when I was 25 - and been happening since.)

  Hell, even a box of wall tile is heavy to me nowadays!!  I mean, really - What the hell?  Am I starting to lose strength or what?  GAH!

  To give you all a little background information - I've been a powerlifter since I was 13 years old. I started lifting weights in my Dad's garage, on a religious basis - lift more, lift more, gain strength.  And I got good at it.  I scored my first job in the carpet industry when I was 15 years old - I was a stock guy for old New York Carpet World.  And that was a golden opportunity to strength train - back then, there was rubber pad, hair pad, and foam pad that was damn near an inch thick - great for weight.  Not to mention carrying carpet!!!   What not a better strength trainer than a 30+ foot roll of Berber carpet!  So I started carrying bigger and bigger rolls of carpet - At one time, I could carry a 80 ft roll of plush carpet from one end of the store to another.

  Yeah - back when I was 15-19, I was king ****.  I could lift up the ass end of a F-150, and so on.  Hence my earning the nickname "Ox".  I was a bull.  Not anymore.  Working for who I work for - I have hard time standing up a 15 ft roll of carpet, and even trying to shove it in a remnant rack.  Yeesh.

  My wife tells me it's because I blew myself out when I was earlier - created such back problems by doing what I did, that I'm feeling the consequences of it now.  Let me tell you all - It does not feel good, at all!  I'm 29 years old, and I hobble for a minute when I stand up, until the back gets used to having weight on it.  I see a chiropractor - but I still can't help but wonder if I'm going to need surgery one day.  The chiropractor helps, but it never fails, the next day - my back is back to hurting.  Damn.

Shoulders, arms, hands - I've lost strength in them all.  The mad bummer about is, is that I used to be able to crush a glass with my bare hand, back in my youth - can't even get it to crack nowadays.

And there's no bigger bummer than having consistent knee pain throughout the entire winter.  When I was 16, just got the drivers license, and got rear ended by a dude going 35, and stopping by hitting me.  My left knee got pushed into my old Chevy Berretta's driver side vent.  I didn't even know it - until I looked at it a few days later, and saw the thing was shattered and the duct was cracked back about three inches....  Funny part is, is that my knee didn't hurt back then - I didn't start noticing it until my early twenties when it was cold, humid, or rainy.  My left knee would start getting a shooting pain right in the middle of it.

I've been to doctors before for the knee pain, and they tell me it's just a flexibility issue because there's no deformities on my X-rays.  So my bones are fine, but I have to stretch the knee. :roll: 

Lest they forget, that scar tissue from the ligament tear or whatever happened back then, doesn't show up on X-ray (This is by another doctor, as well as my father-in-law chiropractor.)  So it's one of those things that eventually, I may need Knee Replacement Surgery - who knows.

Damn - if I'm not in trouble.  Well, they say live fast, die young, and leave a good looking corpse...  That's the rate I'm at.  Physically, I'm 29, but I friggin feel like I'm 45.  I find myself telling people that there are things that I can't handle - which back then, I could do anything.  *shakes head*

So, I had made a post before that said "I'm not as good as I once was..."  Which I can't help but feel is entirely true.  I know there's other things such as stress, physical, and emotional (which my world is upside down right now...) that effect the way a person's body reacts - but for God's sakes!!!   I'm only 29!!!!! *shakes head*

Well hell..  Here it is 10:00 at night, and I'm delirous from sleep deprivation (I think....) so time for ol Tavi to hit the sack.